Meta

Skylights top eight angular peaks on the roof of this exhibition centre in the Chinese city of Nanjing by architecture firm NBBJ, funnelling natural light down into the interior.

The Nanjing Eco-Tech Island Exhibition Centre was developed by NBBJ as part of a masterplan that will see an island in the Yangtze River transformed into a sustainable park and campus for higher-tech innovation.

NBBJ is overseeing the improvement of the 13.four-hectare internet site, which is situated about 6.five kilometres from the city’s downtown location and across a bridge from a new central company district.

The campus aims to act as an incubator for technologies and environmental firms, with the exhibition centre set to be joined by office investigation buildings and housing.

The exhibition centre is the very first developing to be constructed as part of the new park, and its dramatic roof is also the 1st factor visitors see from the adjacent elevated bridge.

“As portion of the design, a horizon line separates earth from sky,” mentioned the architects. “However the symbolic roof overhangs also shade the entire developing from direct solar gain.”

“The idea of the exhibition hall design and style is one particular of optimism in searching towards a far better future – toward the horizon line – which defined the formal massing method of an interaction of architecture and landscape producing harmony between man and nature.”

The huge roof features eight peaks that reference the outline of nearby mountain ranges. Every single of the angular protrusions incorporates an oculus that enables light to descend deep into the building.

The open-topped structures will be echoed in the forms of the eight workplace analysis buildings that will eventually be constructed about internal courtyards on a nearby plot.

The ground floor of the centre consists of exhibition spaces, a lobby, a conference room and a small auditorium. A public plaza extends out from the entrance to meet the landscaped park in front of the developing.

The very first floor accommodates further events spaces alongside an workplace, although a lot more offices are positioned on the two storeys above.

The funnels on the roof direct organic light down into areas utilised by each visitors and tenants. Bright-red glossy tiles lining their inner surfaces diffuses the light as it filters down into the constructing.

Light studies had been carried out to figure out the optimal configuration of the roof so its overhang offers passive solar shading throughout the summer months, and allows lots of daylight to enter throughout the winter.

Wooden panelling applied across walls and ceilings each internally and externally creates a sense of continuity amongst the public areas on either side of the glazed entrance.

A suspended staircase with glass balustrades and an illuminated underside types a function in the massive skylit atrium.